- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Better yet, let's make Sunday, Nov. 6 "The DragonFLY Day."
That's when the Bohart Museum of Entomology is hosting an open house--themed "Dragonflies Rule!"--from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis.
It's free and family friendly. Among the dragonfly experts lending their expertise will be Rosser Garrison, formerly of the California Department of Food and Agriculture; Christopher Beatty, a visiting scholar in the Program for Conservation Genomics at Stanford University; Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas; UC Davis doctoral student Christofer Brothers; and UC Davis alumnus Andy Rehn, ecologist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, among others.
The males are a firecracker red and delightful to observe. Sometimes they "permit" you to approach so close that you can see what's on the menu: a honey bee, sweat bee, syrphid fly or other prey.
Cristofer Brothers, a fourth-year animal behavior doctoral student at UC Davis, took this image (above) of a stunningly beautiful flameskimmer. "I'm most interested in how dragonflies use their legs while they capture prey in both of their nymph and adult stages," he said. "My PhD is focusing on the behavior of Libellula saturata, the flame skimmer, and on various other species for phylogenetic comparisons of their behavior and morphology."
"I've been fascinated by dragonflies since I was a kid, and would always try to save adults that fell into the pool," he said. "As a teenager, I was a lifeguard and always loved it when dragonflies would perch on my rescue tube, and always wanted to learn more about them. Now, I have the privilege to spend all day reading about, thinking about, and looking at them, so I'm really living the dream!"
Brothers delivered a guest presentation on dragonfly predation behavior at the 2022 UC Davis Bio Boot Camp. His talk took place along the banks of Putah Creek where the group met to learn about and search for dragonflies.
Also during the Bohart Museum open house, a family arts-and-crafts activity is planned: visitors can color pages from Kathy Claypole Biggs' dragonfly coloring book. Guests can view the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) collection, curated by entomologist Jeff Smith; and "pet" and take selfies of some of the live animals in the petting zoo, which includes Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas.
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946, is directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. It is the global home of eight million insect specimens, as well as the live "petting zoo" and an insect-themed gift shop stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, posters, jewelry, collecting equipment and more.
Named for UC Davis professor and noted entomologist Richard Bohart, the Bohart Museum is open to the public from 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 5 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays. More information is available on the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Be sure to attend the Bohart Museum of Entomology open house on "Dragonflies Rule!" from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6 in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis.
It's free and family friendly. You'll learn about dragonflies, view dragonfly specimens and publications, and you can ask questions of the scientists.
We announced earlier that dragonfly expert Rosser Garrison, formerly of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, will lend his expertise as will Bohart Museum associate Greg Kareofelas. So will Christopher Beatty, known as "Doc Beatty" on social media; UC Davis doctoral student Christofer Brothers; and UC Davis alumnus Andy Rehn, UC Davis alumnus Andy Rehn, ecologist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, among others.
Christopher Beatty
Christopher Beatty, a visiting scholar in the Program for Conservation Genomics at Stanford University, wrote in an email that he has been working "for a few years on petaltail dragonflies, with much of the work focused on the Black Petaltail (Tanypteryx hageni) in California and Oregon. I am happy to help out answering general questions about dragonflies, and can also answer questions about my research if there is interest." He's on Twitter at @ChrisDBeatty.
ESA established the Founders' Memorial Award in 1958 "to honor the memory of scientists who made outstanding contributions to entomology," according to a website post. ESA announced that "Beatty has focused much of his entomological career studying the behavior and ecology of dragonflies and damselflies, having served in research and teaching positions at the University of Vigo (Spain), Santa Clara University, Cornell University, the University of Kiel (Germany), and Stanford University. He has authored or co-authored more than 25 peer-reviewed articles since 2003, and he is currently co-editing the forthcoming Dragonflies & Damselflies: Model Organisms for Ecological and Evolutionary Research, 2nd Edition (Oxford University Press).
Beatty holds a bachelor's degree (1996) in ecology, ethology, and evolution from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; a master's degree (2002) in environmental science from Oregon State University; and a doctorate (2006) in ecology, evolution, systematics, and population biology from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.
Cristofer Brothers
Cristofer Brothers is a fourth-year animal behavior doctoral student. "I'm most interested in how dragonflies use their legs while they capture prey in both of their nymph and adult stages," he said. "My PhD is focusing on the behavior of Libellula saturata, the flame skimmer, and on various other species for phylogenetic comparisons of their behavior and morphology."
"I've been fascinated by dragonflies since I was a kid, and would always try to save adults that fell into the pool. As a teenager, I was a lifeguard and always loved it when dragonflies would perch on my rescue tube, and always wanted to learn more about them. Now, I have the privilege to spend all day reading about, thinking about, and looking at them, so I'm really living the dream!"
"His dissertation will be partly museum-based as he investigates the diversity of spines on dragonfly legs, both in adults and nymphs," said Tabatha Yang, education and outreach coordinator.
Arts and Crafts
Also during the open house, a family arts-and-crafts activity is planned. Guests can color pages from Kathy Claypole Biggs' dragonfly coloring book. Also, guests can view the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) collection, curated by entomologist Jeff Smith; and "pet" and take selfies of some of the live animals in the petting zoo, which include Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas.
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946, is directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. It is the global home of eight million insect specimens, as well as the live "petting zoo" and an insect-themed gift shop stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, posters, jewelry, collecting equipment and more. Named for UC Davis professor and noted entomologist Richard Bohart, it is open to the public from 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 5 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays. More information is available on the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
The open house, free and family friendly, set from 1 to 4 p.m. in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building. 455 Crocker Lane, and will feature noted dragonfly expert Rosser Garrison of Sacramento, widely recognized as one of the current leading experts of the taxonomy of New World Odonata.
Dragonflies were here before the dinosaurs. “Dragonfly relatives existed before the onset of the dinosaurs---Triassic Period, 250 to 200 million years ago,” Garrison says. Some of these gigantic dragonfly-like insects had wingspans of about three feet.
Garrison, who retired in 2017 as a senior insect biosystematist in the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Plant Pest Diagnostics Branch, Sacramento, continues his research on dragonflies. He has collected more than 50,000 dragonflies specimens throughout the world. His collection now contains more than half of all the known species of the world.
Garrison, who holds a doctorate (1974) from UC Berkeley, served as the senior biologist/entomologist for Los Angeles County before becoming a senior insect biosystematist with the Plant Pest Diagnostics Branch, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), in Sacramento, where he identified orthopteroid, heteropteroid, other groups of invertebrates including mollusks. He retired from CDFA in August 2017 and continues working on Odonata at his home in the Pocket area of Sacramento.
"I continued to collect and maintain a collection of insects from an early age and later enjoyed identifying them using the third edition of the classic entomology text An Introduction to the Study of Insects by D.J. Borror and D. Delong," he said. His main interest is the systematics of Odonata with a strong emphasis on the Neotropical fauna.
He and his wife, Natalia von Ellenrieder, a senior insect biosystematist with CDFA, have worked intensively with the Odonata fauna of the Neotropical region. He has written more than 100 publications pertaining to Odonata, including three books: Dragonfly Genera of the New World: An Illustrated and Annotated Key to the Anisoptera (2006), Damselfly Genera of the New World: An Illustrated and Annotated Key to the Zygoptera (2010) and, as co-author, Dragonflies of the Yuangas: A Field Guide to the Species from Argentina (2007).
Garrison has written or co-written taxonomic revisions of more than 20 genera of New World Odonata, such as Enallagma (1984), Hetaerina(1990), Erpetogomphus (1994), Mnesarete (2006) and Telebasis (2009). His present taxonomic work, jointly with von Ellenrieder, focuses on the speciose genus Argia on which he has published several revisions (1994, 1996, 2019, 2019, 2007, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022 (in press).
Garrison's publications include descriptions of more than 75 new species and six new genera of Odonata. In the Americas, he has done entomological field work in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Guyana, French Guiana, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. He has also collected dragonflies in Australia, Papua New Guinea, China, Thailand, Namibia and Iran. One genus and 10 species of Odonates are named after him.
Bohart associate Greg Kareofelas said that other local dragonfly specialists and students "will be there to answer all manner of questions concerning dragonflies and damselflies." They will include Christopher Beatty, visiting scholar, Program for Conservation Genomics, Stanford University; UC Davis alumnus Andy Rehn, ecologist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife; and UC Davis doctoral student Christofer Brothers, who studies dragonflies.
"Bring photos you have taken to have identifications made," Kareofelas says. An arts and crafts activity for all ages is also planned.
Throughout the afternoon, the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), curated by entomologist Jeff Smith, will be open, as will the live insect display showcasing Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas. Visitors are invited to touch or "pet" the cockroaches and stick insects and take selfies.
The Bohart Museum, founded in 1946, is directed by Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology. It is the global home of eight million insect specimens, as well as the live "petting zoo" and an insect-themed gift shop stocked with t-shirts, hoodies, books, posters, jewelry, collecting equipment and more. Named for UC Davis professor and noted entomologist Richard Bohart, it is open to the public from 8 a.m. to noon, and 1 to 5 p.m., Mondays through Thursdays.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
They came to learn about wasps--"The Weird and Wonderful Wasps"--at the recent open house hosted by the Bohart Museum of Entomology, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology.
They learned about such wasps as the Asian giant hornet (aka "murder hornets"), pteromalids, and fig wasps. But they also learned about other insects, including butterflies, moths, beetles, cockroaches, and Jerusalem crickets, while chatting one-on-one with scientists.
Among the scientists participating was postdoctoral researcher Severyn Korneyev, a Ukrainian entomologist who studies flies. At his station, a series of insects flashed on the screen as he shared information and fielded questions.
Korneyev, a researcher with the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Department of General and Applied Entomology, Kyiv, Ukraine, accepted a joint postdoctoral position with the UC Davis Department of Entomology and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) in September 2020. He joined the laboratory of Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology, and the laboratory of Stephen Gaimari, Pest Diagnostics Branch, California Department of Food and Agriculture.
A member of the Ukrainian Entomological Society and the Entomological Society of America, Korneyev specializes in the systematics and taxonomy of the true fruit flies (Diptera: Tephritidae). His expertise includes morphological and molecular diagnostics, collection management, and the field collecting of insects. Korneyev is the lead author of "Phylogeny of the Genus Tephritis Latreille, 1804 (Diptera: Tephritidae)," published in May 2020 in Arthropod Systematics and Phylogeny. Gaimari is one of the co-authors.
Korneyev holds a doctorate in entomology (2016) from the I.I. Schmalhausen Institute of Zoology, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He received both his bachelor's degree and his master's degree in zoology, with honors, from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Korneyev served as a 2017-2018 Fulbright scholar with the Research and Development Program. Michigan State University, East Lansing. He speaks his native tongue, Ukrainian, as well as English and Russian.
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. It also is home to a live “petting zoo,” comprised of Madagascar hissing cockroaches, stick insects and tarantulas; and an insect-themed gift shop, which includes t-shirts, sweatshirts, jewelry, books, posters and other items. The gift shop is open all year-around and is also online.
The insect museum is open to the public Monday through Thursday, from 9 a.m. to noon and from 1 to 5 p.m., except holidays. (See schedule). More information is available on the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu or by contacting bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
The next Bohart open house, themed "Insects, Art and Culture," will take place from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 15. This event is part of Spirit Week (Oct. 10-16) for Aggie students, parents and alumni, but all are welcome. (See list of other fall special events on the Bohart website or on the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology website.)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
On Friday, Aug. 26, he met with success. He spotted four within half an hour.
It all began with his stroll through the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, "where construction at Wyatt Deck was finally completed and the paths have been reopened," he related in a group email.
"It was my first time there in about 3 weeks. As usual, I scoped out the big Asclepias speciosa clone and found...nothing." He then crossed over Arboretum Drive to the Environmental Horticultural gardens where he knew of another small clone of A. speciosa. "By now it was 4:30 p.m. and the area was in dappled light and shade--and there were two brilliantly fresh-looking male monarchs chasing each other in the trees above the milkweed!"
"I looked over the plants for evidence of larval feeding and found absolutely none; I can't believe they were 'born' there despite being so brilliantly fresh-looking. I then walked west on Arboretum Drive, intending to turn north toward Mrak Hall, when an old, worn male monarch flew directly in front of me near eye level. It was now 4:50.
"As I went to turn toward Mrak (Hall) a fresh-looking one--sex undetermined--was cruising up in the trees near the bridge. I believe I saw four different individuals within half an hour. That's almost as many as I've seen in Davis all year."
Then, on Aug. 29, Shapiro ventured to north Davis where Professor Louie Yang of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and collaborators had planted several dozen narrow-leaf milkweed, Asclepias fascicularis, several years ago for their research projects. "Nearly all the plants are in seed; I only found three still in bloom," Shapiro said. "And one had a beautiful, fresh-looking male monarch nectaring at it at 11.55 a.m. I didn't try inspecting all those plants but on casual inspection, I noted no evidence of larval feeding, nor pupae nor pupal exuviae."
That's good news on The Monarch Front.
Shapiro's colleague and former doctoral student Matt Forister, the McMinn Professor of Biology at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR), alerted him to more good monarch news: "They're passing through Reno with increasing frequency. I am personally seeing ~1 per day now. All stopping for nectar, and heading your way, Art. Looks like the production in the desert has been good." (See latest research by Forister and colleagues on "Milkweed Plants Bought at Nurseries May Expose Monarch Caterpillars to Harmful Pesticide Residues," published in the science journal Biological Conservation.)
As you may know, Shapiro has been studying the butterfly populations at 10 sites in Central California for 50 years and maintains a research website, Art Shapiro's Butterfly Site, aka Art's Butterfly World.
The North American Butterfly Monitoring Network (NABA) website praises his work as "the longest continually running butterfly monitoring project in the world":
"Art Shapiro began monitoring 10 transects in 1972 and has been conducting bi-weekly monitoring of those sites ever since. He also monitors an additional site as part of NABA's Seasonal Count Program! Art's program is the longest continually running butterfly monitoring project in the world, predating even the British Butterfly Monitoring Scheme."
Elsewhere in Davis, Bohart Museum of Entomology associate Greg Kareofelas has seen monarchs in his Davis backyard three times this year: May 6, May 11, and in early June. "A couple of days ago, in the Inner Coast Range, Glenn county I saw nine or ten adults and that many larvae."